Management Network Architecture – Large Data Center Solutions

Architecturemanagement

I've read about data center network architectures – Fat-tree, Clos (or spine-leaf), DCell, BCube… None of these make any specific mention of the management network, which I expect would be out-of-band in a data center. Am I right in expecting it to be out-of-band? And if so, are server management interfaces connected to this management network as well? What is the architecture of this network? For a large data center, it needs to be scalable.

I'm interested in what current practice is, as well as what's the right way to do it (in case they're not the same).

Best Answer

For the network infrastructure at Data Centers or Headquarters, ideally management network should be OOB, and all devices' management ports/interfaces are connected to this OOB network.

The following captures from Cisco SAFE Reference Guide give us ideas of how OOB and IB management networks look like:

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I hope it is helpful.

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